Increasingly, retail customers opt for home delivery of their purchases. In many cases these purchases are conducted via an on-line experience. In other cases the customer makes a purchase while on-site at a retailer's physical location but arranges for delivery of the purchased product to an address of their choice. The foregoing applies as well to business customers who arrange for delivery of purchased items to their selected business address.
Prior art practices have long encompassed effecting such deliveries via a public service (such as the United States Postal Service) or a private service (such as the United Parcel Service or FedEx). These services typically arrange for delivery of such items via a truck or other terrestrial vehicle and the corresponding driver or other delivery person. In more recent times suggestions have been made to employ airborne drones to effect such a delivery. Unfortunately, numerous obstacles hamper such an approach.
For example, federal regulators in the United States (and state-based authorities elsewhere in the world) impose numerous restrictions and conditions upon the commercial use of airborne drones. As another example, airborne drones are typically powered by batteries and hence often have a very limited flight range. As yet another example, it can be challenging to safely and reliably navigate a product-bearing airborne drone over a lengthy distance.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present teachings. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present teachings. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.